The debate over whether the Government should provide support to Qantas has got airline chiefs all riled up.

Virgin Australia has lashed out at Treasurer Joe Hockey for calling it a “3000-pound gorilla”, saying it’s a “bit rich” to accuse it of being a bigger market player than Qantas.

Mr Hockey took a veiled swipe at the foreign-backed airline last week when considering a call for government assistance from Qantas and revisiting legislation which shackles it from foreign ownership.

He said the arrival of a “3000-pound gorilla” meant the Qantas Sale Act put the smaller “800-pound gorilla” at a disadvantage.

“Let’s look at the facts: Qantas is much bigger than us, has chased the dominant position in every aspect of the domestic market and is hell-bent on adding two aircraft for every one we add,” Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti told ABC radio on Tuesday. “And I think it’s a bit rich turning that around.”

The former principal of a Queensland primary school where a teacher sexually abused 13 girls is expected to front the royal commission on Tuesday.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at how the school and Catholic education officials dealt with early complaints against pedophile teacher Gerard Byrnes.

He appealed the conviction and was to appear at the District Court in Gosford last Thursday but shocked sheriff officers when he placed a large black duffel bag on the security X-ray conveyor. Clearly visible to them was the dog’s body.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa with US Secretary of State John Kerry. PictuSource:AFP

Indonesia’s foreign minister Marty Natalegawa has said reports of Australian spying on a trade dispute with the United States are ‘mind-boggling’.

“I find that a bit mind-boggling and a bit difficult how I can connect or reconcile discussion about shrimps and how it impacts on Australia’s security,” Mr Natalegawa told reporters, referring to claims made in a weekend report by the New York Times.

If you live in Western Australia you better arm yourself with a sausage sandwich, because you’re probably headed back to the polls.

Today, Justice Kenneth Hayne is due to hand down a midday (AEDT) Tuesday judgment following a High Court petition from the Australian Electoral Commission to void the result of the September 2013 West Australian senate election.

The AEC lost 1370 votes in a recount of the Senate ballots.

University of NSW professor George Williams said the result will likely be invalidated.

It’s every air passenger’s worst nightmare. Passengers of an Ethiopian Airlines jet hijacked by its copilot have told of the terrifying hours the plane spent careening across the sky.

An Italian passenger on board, Francesco Cuomo, told the Italian news agency ANSA that some passengers woke up shortly after midnight when the plane started to “bounce.”

“The pilot was threatening to open the cockpit door and tried to knock it down without succeeding,” said Cuomo, a 25-year-old economist.

“At this point, a message was transmitted by the loudspeakers in poor English, but the threat to crash the aeroplane was clearly understood,” he added.

Picture: AFPSource:AFP

Oxygen masks then came down, he said, making everyone on the plane very tense.

“We had no clue about the hijacking, but got scared when the plane suddenly started diving, it seemed like it was falling from the sky,” Italian passenger Diego Carpelli, 45, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Carpelli was returning to his native Rome from a vacation in Kenya with his family.

“Someone in an intimidating tone said we should put on our oxygen masks,” Carpelli said, adding that he was terrified for the rest of the flight.

The flight was intended to land in Italy but was steered off course to Geneva, Switzerland, where the copilot intended to seek asylum.

6am

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